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PROPOSED ANNEXATION OF HAWAII. 



SPEECH 



OF 



HON. D. S. ALEXANDER, 



Ol^ T>JE\V YORI^, 



IN THE 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



Saturday, June 11,1898. 



WJVSI-IINQTOM. 

1S98, 



i^ 7/3 






4^ 



72335 



srEEcn 



HON. D. S. ALEXANDER. 



The House having under consideration the joint resohition (H. R. rJ5S)) to 
provide for annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States- 
Mr. ALEXANDER said: 

Mr. Speaker: The annexation of the Hawcaiian Islands, for the 
first time in our history, is presented to us as a war necessity. 
Their strategic features have long been understood. Ever since 
steam supplanted wind these islands have been recognized as the 
only bridge over which the vast Pacific could be safely passed by 
a ^eet of modern war vessels. The cession of Pearl Harbor was 
advocated because it was the key to the full defense of our west- 
ern shore and because that key should rest only in the grasp of 
the United States. 

Naval officers have written, and their readers have believed, 
that under present conditions it is not practicable for any trans- 
Pacific nation to invade our western coast without occupying 
Hawaii as a base, and for years it has been admitted that it would 
be vastly easier to defend these islands l:)y preoccupying and forti- 
fying them. It has been demonstrated by the highest naval ex- 
perts that a navy sufficient to protect our Pacific coast would also 
be ample to protect these islands, for in the event of war Hawaii 
must be occupied by the United States not only for a base, but to 
prevent an enemy from using it against us as his base. In a war 
neutrals would not prevent belligerents from taking possession 
of it. 

All this has long been known. There is not a word written or 
spoken to-day in favor of the annexation of these islands that has 

not often been heard during the past thirty years. Yet not until 
3m 3 



we are in the presence of necessities growing out of actual war 
are these facts sufficiently and fully realized and appreciated to 
arouse the country to proper action. Necessity is not more the 
mother of invention than it is the schoolmaster of a great people. 
To-day we need the Hawaiian Islands much more than they ever 
needed us. Since the splendid achievement of Admiral Dewey 
Hawaii has become as absolutely necessary to the successful con- 
duct of war as it has heretofore appeared to be necessary in the 
theories of astute strategists. And yet the reasons for annexation 
are no stronger or truer to-day than they were a year ago. 

A STARTLING ADMISSION. 

A few weeks ago I listened with great interest to the able speech 
of the distinguished gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Johnson] in 
opposition to the annexation of Hawaii. It was forceful and 
highly patriotic and will take its place among the best speeches 
delivered on the negative of this question. But at the very out- 
set he made an admission, almost startling, coming from him, that 
"the very few of our countrymen who have given any attention 
to the subject are inclined to favor annexation!" Is the converse 
of this proposition also true? Are we to understand from the 
gentleman that those of our coimtrymen who have given no at- 
tention to the subject are inclined to oppose annexation? 

I do not charge this as true, although the gentleman from Indi- 
ana seems to admit it, but I do believe that the better informed 
one becomes upon this subject the more inclined he is to accept 
annexation as the only wise and patriotic escape from the present 
situation. 

JAPAN'S INCREASING INFLUENCE. 

The (juestion is not only, Shall we annex Hawaii? but. Are we 
willing to allow some other nation to annex it? Whatever may 
be the declarations or political intentions of the Japanese Gov- 
ernment as a Government, it is no longer a secret tliat the 
people of Hawaii are in danger of passing under the domination 
of Japan "by a peaceful process," as Captain Mahan says, "of 
overrunning and assimilation." For several months during 1896 
and 1897 the Japanese entered Hawaii at the rate of 2,000 per 
month, until now they number 2.-).000.or nearly one-quarter of the 
total population. When Hawaii attempts to stay such an inva- 
;5wj 



sion by a resort to laws similar to our own against coutract labor- 
ers and patipers, Japan refuses to recognize its right so to legis- 
late and demands unrestricted immigration. 

Add to this demand the tremendous leap which Japan has 
taken within the past two years, becoming a recognized greafe 
power of the Pacific, if not of the world, and it is easy to under- 
stand why the conditions and attitude of Japan have changed 
quickly and radically with respect to Hawaii. If these changing 
conditions are permitted to go on, it is only a question of time, 
and possibly of very short time, how soon the supremacy of Japan 
v\'ill be completed. 

THE WORK OF THE ANGLO-SAXON. 

This fact, if unaccepted or disregarded by the people of the 
United States, is fully and startlingly recognized by the Anglo- 
Saxon residents and their supporters, who have given to Hawaii its 
civilization, its schools, its churches, its commerce, and its great 
producing capacity, who own more than three-fourths of all 
the property of the country, who have transferred to it the insti- 
tutions, the laws, and the helpful civilizing influences of Amer- 
ica, filling the land with railroads, cars, engines, waterworks, 
telephones, and all the latest inventions, improvements, and con- 
veniences, which aid in making our country so desirable and so 
progressive. 

These 8,000 Americans, English, aad Germans, v/ho have ac- 
complished all this and more, will not suffer themselves to be 
swallowed up by the civilization of a remote East whose standards 
of living are so much lower than ours that satisfactory existence 
to them is equivalent to destitution and despair to us. These peo- 
ple have not toiled and endured privations for two generations, 
turning Hawaii into a garden spot, rich in everything that makes 
home and life desirable, only at last to have it fall into the posses- 
sion of Japan, either by the fiat of Government or by its inunda- 
tion with orientalism. 

THEtK OFFEU AND THUIU APPEAL. 

These heroic souls, backed by a large proportion of native Ha- 
waiians. are now facing this problem. They offer to us four and 
one-half millions of acres, an extent of territory larger than Con- 



6 

necticut and Rhode Island combined, which are practically owned 
as well as governed by a people who are bone of our bone and 
flesh of our flesh. 

Under laws similar to those in the United States they are striv- 
ing to hold back the flow of oriental immigration, that these 
favored isles of the sea may come to the great Republic as free as 
possible from Asiatic influences; they appeal to us to study and 
understand the seriousness of their situation and the importance 
to us of their country; thej' call attention to the fact that Hawaii 
imports more of the products of the United States than any other 
country bordering on the Pacific; that it bought more largely 
in 1896 than any other nation save Australia; that it was the sec- 
ond largest wine customer, the third best purchaser of salmon 
and barley, and the sixth best purchaser of American flour; that 
twice as many American vessels visit Hawaii in the course of a 
year as enter any other country on the globe; that in all the ports 
of Europe in 1896 the American flag floated at the masthead of 
only 30 ships, that in the ports of Asia it was seen flying from the 
topmasts of but 98 ships, that in all the ports of,the United King- 
dom our flag flying from the mast of a ship could be counted but 
88 times, while in the ports of Hawaii it floated gracefully in the 
trade winds from the mainmasts of 191 vessels. 

THE KEED OF A STROKG ARM. 

The whole trend of trade, of law, of government, and of thought 
is American. The President of the Republic, who is a type of the 
men responsible for this wonderful growth, is a native of Hawaii 
and the son of two Maine missionaries, who went to the Sandwich 
Islands in the early decades of the century to aid in the work of 
civilization. For the last five years these iieople have desired to 
fly our flag, to give us their sovereignt}', to accept our laws, and 
to obey our commands; but they can not continue this invitation 
forever. 

The need of some strong arm to uphold them is apparent. With 
the eyes of Japan fixed in deadly fascination upon their country, 
backed by its new life born of successful war, by its powerful 
navy sweeping in broadening ciriles about their domain, by its 
modern steel guns ranged upon their one great city, and, worse 
than all. by its commercial element already settled in position to 



compete with and gradually destroy its meichauts, these people 
are compelled to come to us or to go elsewhere to prevent being 
swallowed up by the Orient. 

E^fGLAND WILLING TO TAKE T^E^r. 

Where else can they go? It is an open secret that England, like 
Barkis, is perfectly willing. Under the English flag their prop- 
erty, their civilization, their laws, everything they hold dear and 
wash to conserve, will be entirely secure. No oriental or other 
power ever treads on that flag. Once under its folds, Hawaii 
would form a part of the great Anglo-Saxon community growing 
up in the Pacific Ocean. Australia, larger than the United States 
if we except Alaska, wdth its wonderful resources, developed and 
undeveloped, stops the flow of two oceans under the Southern 
Cross. To the north and east a whole fleet of islands, marshaled 
as if for war, are flying the same flag and controlled by the same 
world-inspiring, ijrogress-making people. Between that fleet of 
islands and British America is Hawaii, affording the only port be- 
tween Asia and America where a ton of coal or a barrel of water 
can be obtained. 

Would England reject this Gibraltar of the Pacific? Not while 
the spirit of commerce guides the statesmen who define her policy 
throughout the world and the keen eye of its admiralty office 
conserves her interests by providing in times of licace greater 
security and advantage for times of Vt^ar. 

THE MONROE DOCTIllNE. 

The question, therefore, presents itself, shall America or Eng- 
land accept the invitation of this Anglo-Saxon blood that is hold- 
ing Hawaii to-day against the progressive, commercial, and 
national spirit which dominates this New World power that is 
projected into the domain of international politics? 

For more than fifty years we have maintained that these islands 
are more nearly related to us than to an)' other nation and that no 
power should take possession of or control them. In 1843 Mr. 
Webster, then Secretary of State, in replying to the application of 
the Hawaiian Government for recognition, wrote as follows: 

Tho President is of opinion that the interests of all the commercial nations 
require that that Government (Hawaii) shall not be iutorfored with by for- 
eign powers. The United States are more interested in the fate of the islands 
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and of their Government than any other nation can be, and this considera- 
tion induces the President to be qviite willing to declare, as the sense of the 
Government of the United States, that the Government of the Sandwich Is- 
lands must not be interfered with as a conquest or for the purpose of coloni- 
zation, and that no power ought to seek for any undue control over the exist- 
tng Government or any exclusive privileges or preferences in matters of 
commerce. 

lu 1843, after England had seized the islands, Mr. Legare, then 
Secretar}' of State under President Polk, wrote tlie United States 
minister at London as follows: 

It is well known that we have no wish to plant or to acquii'e colonies 
abroad. Yet there is something so entirely peculiar in the relations between 
this little Commonwealth, Hawaii, and ourselves that we might even feel jus- 
tified, consistently with our own principles, in interfering by force to prevent 
its falling into the hands of one of the groat powers of Europe. These rela- 
tions spring out of the local situation, the history and the character and in- 
stitutions of the Hawaiian Islands, as well as out of the declarations formally 
made by this Government during the course of the last session of Congress, 
to which I beg leave to call your particular attention. 

If the attempts now making by ourselves as well as other Christian powers 
to open the markets of China to a more general commerce be successful, there 
can be no doubt but that a great part of that commerce will find its way over 
the isthmus. In that event it will be impossible to overrate the importance 
of the Hawaiian group as a stage in the long voyage between Asia and Amer- 
ica. But without anticipating events which, however, seem inevitable and 
even approaching, the actual demands of an immense navigation make the 
free use of these roadsteads and ports indispensiblo to us. It seems doubtful 
whether even the undisputed possession of the Oregon Territory and the use 
of the Columbia River, or indeed anythmg short of the acquisition of Califor- 
nia (if that were possible), would be sufficient indemnity to ua for the loss of 
these harbors. 

In 1849, when the French showed a disposition hostile to the 

Hawaiian Government, Mr. Buchanan, then Secretary- of State, 

sent the following dispatch to the United States minister resident 

at Honolulu: 

"We ardently desire that the Hawaiian Islands may maintain tlieir inde- 
pendence. It would be highly injurious to our interests if, tempted by their 
weakness, they should be seized by Great Britain or France; more especially 
so since our recent acquisitions from Mexico on the Pacific Ocean. 

Again, in 18o0, Secretary of State Clayton, and later, in 1851, 

Mr. Webster addressed the United States minister at Paris, their 

language having no uncertain meaning. Mr. Webster, referring 

to the further demands against Hawaii, said: 

A step like this could not fail to bo viewed by the Government and people 
of the Cnited States with a dissatisfaction which would tend seriously to 
disturb our existing friendly relations with the French Government. 

A few months later, upon hearing that the French still threat- 

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ened Hawcaii, Mr. Webster wrote as follows to the American con- 
sul at Honolulu: 

I trust the French will not take possession; but if they do, they will be 
dislodged, if my advice is taken, if the whole power of the Government is 
required to do it. 

From that day to this our Government has maintained the same 
position respecting these islands, and are we now to be told that 
we do not wish to increase our Navy to defend them, or our ap- 
propriations to fortify them? That in order to avoid entangling 
alliances with other countries we must refuse to make Hawaii c 
part of our territory? Is it no longer true, as Mr. Webster said, 
that "the United States are more interested in the fate of the 
islands and of their government than any other nation can be? " 
Was Secretary Legare wrong when he said that " it will be im- 
possible to overrate the importance of the Hawaiian 'group as a 
stage in the long voyage between Asia and America? " 

Shall it be said that Secretary Clayton was misinformed when 
he proclaimed the fact that "the situation of the Sandwich 
Islands in respect to our possessions on the Pacific and the com- 
mercial bonds between them and the United States are such that 
we could never with indifference allow them to pass under the 
domination or exclusive control of any other power "? The great 
Secretary of State under President Fillmore believed "the Ha- 
waiian Islands are ten times nearer to the United States than to 
any of the powers of Europe. Five-sixths of all their commer- 
cial intercourse is with the United States, and these considerations 
have fixed the course which the Government of the United States 
will pursue in regard to them. " 

Are these statesmanlike views less true to-day than in 1851? 
Shall the fears of the gentleman from Indiana "that Hawaii will 
be a source of irritation for all time to come; " that it may cost us 
something to fortify and protect it; that because it is not contig- 
uous to our territory and its inhabitants are not homogeneous— 
shall such and similar fears overturn the sentiments of our great- 
est statesmen and change the policy of our Government that has 
been adhered to for more than half a century? 

HAWAII NEVER BEFORE OFFERED US. 

The gentleman from Indiana was misinformed when he as- 
serted several weeks ago that in 1853 these islands were offered to 
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us for the mere acceptance of them and that the statesmanship of 
that day was sensible and patriotic enough to respectfully decline 
them. In August, 1853, and again in January, ISoi, petitions in 
favor of annexation to the United States were presented to the 
King, and, although opposed by the missionaries and many others, 
the King, disheartened by the demands of foreign powers, by 
threats of filibusters and by conspirators at home, commanded 
Mr. Wyllie, his secretary of state, to ascertain on what terms a 
treaty of annexation could be negotiated. Acting under instruc- 
tions from Mr. Marcy, our minister, Mr. Gregg completed such 
a treaty on August 7, 1854, but the King's death occurred before 
he had concluded his consideration of it, and his successor refused 
to ratify it. This closed all negotiations between the two coun- 
tries until. July 20, 1861, when a treaty of reciprocity was con- 
cluded. 

AMERICA ATILL XEVER CONSENT TO ENGLAND'S CONTKOL. 

But what do gentlemen say to the proposition that these islands, 
being refused by us, shall pass, upon the invitation of the 
Hawaiian Government, under the control of England? "Would 
they have the United States play the part of "the dog in tho 
manger?" Shall we decline annexation and disallow the great, 
protecting Anglo-Saxon arm of England to take them within her 
embrace? If, as gentlemen say, we do not wish to increase our 
Navy to defend them or our appropriations to fortify them; if their 
trade and their strategic position are of less value to us than the 
money it might cost to uphold them, why longer consider them 
within the Monroe doctrine? 

If our view of their value has changed since the days of Webster 
and Marcy and Legare; if in 1881 Mr. Blaine was wrong in his 
statement that " the situation of the Hawaiian Islands, giving 
them strategic control of the North Pacific, brings their posses- 
sion within the range of questions of purely American policy, as 
much so as that of the Isthmus itself;" if everything that has 
been said and done respecting these islands for half a century is 
wrong, then why care who owns them or controls them? 

But let me say to the gentlemon that this country will never 
consent that the great statesmen of the past were wrong. What- 
ever be the cost of defending them, whatever be the fears of en- 
tangling foreign alliances, whatever bo thj character of their popu- 



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lation, their distance from the Pacific coast, or the undesirability 
of further annexation of territory, the people of tlie United States 
will never willingly allow England or any other country to 
possess or control Hawaii. 

THE PEOPLE FRIENDLY TO ANNEXATION. 

I can not credit the statement that the people of Hawaii are 
opposed to annexation. Tiiey favored it in 1854, but their king 
refused to ratify the treaty. In 1867 Secretary Seward feared 
that the reciprocity treaty would be actively opposed on the 
ground that it would - hinder and defeat an early annexation, to 
which the people of the Sandwich Islands are supposed to be now 
strongly inclined." "Annexation," continued the great War Sec- 
retary of State, " is in every case to be preferred to reciprocity." 
Secretary Fish and Mr. Blaine, although more guarded, perhaps, 
in their language, wtre of the same opinion. 

The "monster petit ion " opposing annexation to which reference 
has been made is neither representative nor honest. It is well 
understood that it was prepared by the immediate followers of the 
r late Queen; that the methods employed to obtain it were not of a 

- high character, and that what it purports to show is untrue and 

P unfounded. That the native Hawaiians, as well as half-breeds, 

are as friendly to annexation as the Germans, Scandinavians, and 
Anglo-Saxons is well understood by those who have been in posi- 
tion, official and otherwise, to know the true feeling that obtains 
upon those islands. 

ITS TERRITORY NOT CONTIGUOUS. 

Mr. Speaker, I do not reject annexation because Hawaii is not 
contiguous. Alaska is not contiguous; the Aleutian Islands are 
not contiguous; Midway Island, 1,200 miles west of Honolulu, 
which we annexed in 1867, and for the development of which we 
appropriated $50,000, is not contiguous territory. When we an- 
nexed Louisiana, it was farther away from ourseatof government 
than Hawaii is to-day. 

True, it was contiguous by land as Alaska is, but no one hi 1803 
went to New Orleans by land any more than they now go to 
Alaska by an overland route. England is 2,800 miles from New 
York, but no one thinks of it being farther away or more difficult 
to reach than San Francisco. Water plowed by the modern steam- 
ship is no more of a barrier thanland traversed by a modern railroad 

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train. In tlie days of Rome's greatness it was easier to reacli 
Alexandria or Athens or Carthage than to cross into the contigu- 
ous territory of the GaiiLs. It was by land, too, let ns remember, 
that the peoples came who finally conquered Rome. 

CnAHACTEU OF THE HAWAIIAN PEOPI-E. 

B'O-t the principal objection to annexation seems to be to its peo- 
l)le. The entire population of these islands is less in number than 
the number that sometimes passes through the gates of Castle Gar- 
den in a single month; but among them all there is not a beggar, 
a pauper, or a tramp. A prison may be necessary, but not a poor- 
house. Their producing capacity per capita is larger than in any 
other nation of the world. School attendance is compulsory, and 
instead of ignorance being the general rule and intelligence the 
exception, as the gentleman from Indiana charges, outside of the 
Japanese and Chinese, ignorance is said to be the exception and 
intelligence the general rule. 

The gentleman admits as much when he affirms that " a mon- 
ster petition has been presented by two-thirds of the native in- 
habitants of that island." Ignorance does not sign and present 
petitions upon any subject, and when two-thirds of 30,000 people 
can thus make themselves heard and felt, they are not to be classi- 
fied or compared, as the gentleman from Indiana would have us 
believe, with "the ignorance, the pauperism, and the crime of the 
Old World," such as are excluded from our shores by a recent act 
of Congress. 

The Chinese rushed into Hawaii when California was being 
filled by three times as many Orientals; but a country which 
under better conditions will be able to support 1,000,000, instead 
of iOO.OOO population, as now, need not fear 21,000 Chinese. The 
State of California, with 1,200,000 people, has no fear of its 72,000 
Asiatics. In ten years, from 1880 to 1890, tliis class of its popula- 
tion fell off over 3,000. 

There is no reason to believe that the Chinese of Hawaii will 
form an exception, for they are there only to accumulate, anx- 
iously looking forward to the day when, having a few hundred 
dollars, the steamer .shall return them to their own people and 
homes. Within ten years after the sources of supply are cut off 
as effectually as in the United States the Orientals of Hawaii will 
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be fonncl infrequently, and then only washing the dirty linen of 
a superior and more prosperous people. 

CHARACTER OF PEOPLE FORMERLT AXXEX3D BY THE UXITED STATES. 

Mr. Speaker, what has been the character of the people hereto- 
fore annexed? We purchased the province of Louisiana in 1803; 
Spain ceded Florida in 1819; Texas was annexed in 1816; the great 
territory of Utah, Arizona, and California was ceded by Mexico 
in 1818; the Gadsden purchase was consummated in 1853, and 
Ahiska came to us in 1867; yet not one of these cessions brought 
a homogeneous or desirable people. Louisiana had a few thou- 
sand Frenchmen and a few hundred thousand Indians. The popu- 
lation of Florida was composed of Spaniards and Indians. Texas 
added only Mexicans to more Spanish and Indians. With the ex- 
ception of a few Americans and some Spanish priests, the cession 
of California brought us nothing but more Mexicans and Indians. 
The Gadsden purchase increased this numler, while Alaska en- 
riched us with several hundred Russians and 40,000 Arctic Indians. 

Undesirable as these people were, the country survives, and no 
one to day would part with an inch of territory so acquired. 

XO DANGER FROM LEPROSY. 

But from these acquisitions we got no leprosy, I hear it said. 
No, but we got the yellow-fever scourge, which, under the wiser 
treatment and conditions of these latter days, is gradually disap- 
pearing. Under similar wise treatment and segregation now in 
force in Hawaii, no one sees leprosy or thinks of it, or is in danger 
from it. Like the leprosy of Egypt, one must inquire where it is 
and seek it out if he would see it. Such a reason is unworthy 
serious consideration. 

INFLUENCE OF AMERICAN CIVILIZATION. 

Mr. Speaker, excluding the Chinese and Japane3e, who, as I 
have shown, will gradually disappear of their own volition, there 
are about 60,000 people, men, women, and children, in Hawaii. 
Of these, 39,000 are native and half-breed Hawaiians— a race 
which, it is claimed by the opponents of annexation, is dying out. 
The remaining 21,000 are Anglo-Saxon, Germans, Scandinavians, 
and Portuguese, such people as are scattered all over our country, 
with whom we are familiar, to whom we do not object, and among 
whom we live and associate, without a thought that they are not 
homogeneous or desirable. 

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Among these 60,000 people there are to-day 195 schools in which 
only English is studied, and 14,000 pupils, taught by 426 teachers, 
receiving an average salary of $636 per year, 46.5 per cent of \Yhom 
are Americans and 26.5 are Hawaiians and part Hawaiians. Of 
the pupils 56.5 per cent are Hawaiians and 25 percent Portu- 
guese. 

In 1897 the total number of children of school age (6 to 15 years) 
was 14,286, of vy'liom 96.20 per cent were in school. Of the total 
flawaiian jiopiilation above 6 years of age, 85.28 percent can read 
and write. 

It is a mistake the gentleman from Indiana makes Vv'hen he says 
these people "have not been educated as v.'e have; that they have 
not our habits of thought." For seventy years they have been 
living under the influences of American civilization. They speak 
and study our language; the Stars and Stripes are as familiar as 
their own flag; their laws are copied from those of the United 
States; their rulers, whether under the Crown or the Republic, 
have been largely of American birth or ancestry; they know and 
see only United States money; the English is the language of their 
courts and of the educated classes, and among their holidays are 
the Fourth of July, Decoration Day, and Washington's and Lin- 
coln's birthdays. Outside of the United States there is no people 
eo American, so closely allied with our institutions, and so well 
acquainted with our history and our life. 

In eighty years we have absorbed more than 40,000,000 foreign- 
ers, and the mixture of these races has developed a people which 
stands out in the world's history as the most intelligent, the most 
inventive, the most prosperous, and the best equipped for war or 
peace; a peoi)le which the world calls "American." as distinctive 
and homogeneous, as loj-al and pati'iotic, as proud and as resentful 
of insult to their country's honor as is the P'nglishman or German or 
Frenchman. Some may not read and speak the language as read- 
ily as others; the glorious history of the past, the shaded lines 
between State and Federal Government, and the relation of liberty 
and license may not be known with equal clearness to all; but the 
flag is recognized, the law is respected, the school is attendtMl, and 

the peace is kept better than in any other country on the globe. 
SlXi 



c. 




LiBRHKY Oh CONUKt.i.b. 



013 788 879 8 



